A framework for off-the-shelf software component development and maintenance processes

In recent years, component-based software engineering (CBSE) has become a promising engineering discipline for software development. However, research in the CBSE field has mainly concentrated on in-house component development and utilization of components that have been constructed internally or acquired from component markets. Not enough attention has been paid to commercial software component development, although disciplined processes have been seen as a focal point in the development of high-quality reusable software Although Off-The-Shelf (OTS) software component development can be considered as development for reuse, which is a broadly studied research topic, development for external markets makes it different from traditional reuse process approaches. OTS software components are developed in an environment in which the developer has no control over the market. This publication presents a framework for OTS software component development and maintenance processes based on IEEE Std 1517 Standard for Reuse Processes and ISO/IEC 12207: 1995 Standard for Software Life Cycle Processes, and introduces general guidelines for OTS component user documentation. OTS software component development follows the incremental and iterative life cycle, as it facilitates recognizing and managing changing requirements and mitigating risks at an early stage. The process framework incorporates aspects of software development for external markets, as well as characteristics deriving from the nature of a component being a unit of composition, such as adhering to component models. The process framework has some limitations: process activities and tasks are presented at a high abstraction level and they have not been validated in practice. Thus, the processes are likely to require revising and further refining once put into use.